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When I was a kid and even a teenager, I always wanted to be a successful business woman – be an entrepreneur – do something innovative and have an edge in the market.
As an entrepreneur and a business woman, I’ve realised Indian business has place only for ruthless, corrupt and rowdy people. Like Six Sigma quality control, one in 4 million will be a defective person who would be a thorough gentleman. The much spoken about professionalism lacks across all industries, horizontal and vertical domains. What is even more surprising is the fact that so many people loathe about the Indian culture being washed by western influx; however as employees, business persons, such people forget the so called Indian culture of respect and peace while dealing with outsiders and even other stakeholders within the organisation they work in. Everyone wants to break laws and regulations; including the government who makes the laws – forcing the innocent people to bear the wrath of the customers, the government penalties as well as the government officials “daan dakshina”.
Till now I only knew government officials were corrupt and dacoits, as a business woman, it has dawned on me that even the most professional companies – be it a UK based MNC or Switzerland based MNC – all when run by the middle mentality uneducated, untrained Indian employees are as bad as if not worse the government officers ( like the income tax and excise and custom officers ) If I want to solicit a customer, I have to offer the purchase or the quality manager some dakshina. the word “some” could be anything – jewellery for some who feel guilty, gifts for some who like to be obliged, hard cash to rest who say they are bound to recieve some interest from the orders their organisation places on us. So this is what our Indian heritage taught them. This is the culture we are so proud about. And this is the culture for which India is so infamous. Such has the business world come to – which I rightly term it as obscene – there’s not much of a difference in an obscene shot in a movie and corruption taking place in the knowledge of each and every INDIAN. What is even more fascinating is that I’ve heard these corrupt purchase managers talk of how corrupt our politicians are! Have they any rights or lefts or straights to talk crib about corruption? My elders often explain that the corruption systems are laid such that we all need to abide to them to thrive in the industry in India. They claim that even the big MNCs and IT companies do so at the management level. But this fact doesn’t make me feel any better. Why do we need to transact business at the cost of making our conscious guilty? Isn’t life meant to be enjoyed rather than just moving at the pace of th business systems?
The world has been running at a fast pace – with managers constantly under the pressure of their bosses and their clients. Organisations expect JIT systems in place. With the best possible services rendered, these organisations, who claim to be “professional” and “market leaders” seem to be cash strapped at most times of the day, let go of the month! They expect a perfect JIT, yet the payment would be made as though its a favour they are showering on their vendors – some sort of beggars. Loan / credit – an American culture which most Indians ( atleast the middle level managers) despise has been seeping right through our Indian business units.
Either ways, a small and medium industry is always in trouble – corruption or lack of funds dur to delayed receipts. What has this world come to? No time to stop and think!
At 7.41%, the inflated Indian economy couldn’t get worse! HIgher metal and food prices have soared the inflation figures to a 40 months high. The good news – India has registered a growth of nearly 8%.
Logically, if inflation is due to rising food prices, then rural income is bound to see a hike. That’s a good news. It helps in adding up to our growth figures. That’s what our Government and its allies and opposition want. However, this inflation is non beneficial. People talk about acute shortage of food grains. When I go to the market – the retail giants as well as the small “kirana” stores, I see everything available aplenty. So why is there a shortage of food grains? The badly managed and inequitable distribution of food grains / food products is largely responsible for soaring food prices. The organsised retail sector – enemies of our Left parties can play a great role to help curb these soaring prices, while the government can concentrate on providing crop insurance and other infrastructural benefits to the farmers. Once the supply is closely matched to the demand by the retail sector, the inflationary pressure would be greatly reduced. At the same time, rural incomes will see a steady rise – thus contributing to growth in harmony.
People complain about rising prices in every day life – yet every common man owns a house (may be on loan), TV, atleast a vehicle (and hence rising petrol consumption), trendiest cell phones (I’ve see many domestic maids, security guards, hawkers using cell phones) – and indication to rising income levels. Just as income levels are rising, the purchasing power of people has also seen a steep increase. When people are ready to spend, why is the government trying to curb natural growth? Why doesn’t the government focus in improving production and distribution to enable better supply of goods? A sad fact is that although the government has raised many industries, they still interfere in the working of these industries. The industries are made to run at losses – they are autonomous bodies – yet at the mercy of the parliament. The Left oppose privatisation of essential industries – however, the government interference and long decision taking strategies has made these industries unhealthy, unprofitable and unattractive.
Government interference in unwarranted areas, wrong policies, poor politics, poor planning, corruption – the more we talk, the less it is. It is heart breaking to see that the government is curbing growth to curb inflation in vain - we are heading towards stagflation – the worst form of economy. Predictions have shown that India’s growth for 2008 – 09 is expected around 7% and with the present inflationary pressure and interest rate, we’re definitely in for a stagflation!
